The Barco Luengo has been “coming soon” for so long it’s almost hard to believe it’s actually here now! This latest ship for Blood & Plunder has started making waves in Blood & Plunder community, already appearing at a major tournament, and opening up new and interesting tactical opportunities for Blood & Plunder players everywhere.

We’re getting our Barcos to the table to get some experience with this spicy little ship before we publish our full ship guide. But in the meantime, we got some Barcos painted and wanted to give you a preview and share some pictures of this sweet little ship all ready for some games.

Barco Luengo Model & Accessories

The Barco Luengo is a resin ship kit, as we have come to expect from Firelock Games.

The ship kit retails for $70 and includes:

• Resin Hull
• Bark Rigging Kit (dowels, connectors and elastic thread)
• 6 Light Cannons
• 6 Swivel Guns
• Barco Luengo ship card

All the cannons and swivel guns are provided in the beautiful new 3D printed resin instead of the previous standard metal.

The sculpting is excellent with good details, wood grain, and pinning points. This sculpt was designed within a 3D design software, then printed and cast from a mold from the print. So details are very precise and uniform. Most of the size 2+ ships from Firelock Games are physically sculpted.

The packaging is delightful in its unprofessionalism…

Building the Barco Luengo

Prep on the hull was pretty easy. There’s always some careful work to cut out the cannon ports nice and cleanly. I noticed one little bubble imperfection in the cast, but overall it was clean and tidy.

I always glue the chain plates and gun hatches on to the hull before priming.

Painting the Barco Luengo

I used the quick and dirty drybrush method for this ship. You can paint the whole ship in a relatively short amount of time this way and it produces a nice, rich and dirty wood effect. I primed with a medium brown, then added a base coat of GW Thondia Brown over everything but the decking. Then I used Dexter’s (From The Plunder Den) method of drybrushing layers of lighter and lighter brown craft paint over the top.

I used Folk Art:

• Bark Brown
• Country Twill
• Linen

After everything was well drybrushed with several layers, I put Agrax Earthshade wash over the entire ship, then did some final drybrushing.

The final step was adding the GW Templar Black contrast paint to the gunwales. That’s it! That’s a grand total of 7 paints to finish this entire ship! You’ll have to take some breaks, especially to let the washes dry, but for a ship this size, this method only takes a couple hours.

Rigging the Barco Luengo

I took a couple liberties here, but nothing fancy or difficult. The kit comes with the Bark rigging kit, which is built for two square sails. I felt the mainsail felt a little small for this ship, so I used the bowsprit rod from the kit (D4) as the spar for the main sail instead of the shorter D7 that would be usual for the Bark. Since the Barco Luengo has no bowsprit, this larger down is not needed.

I used the Bark sail templates, but used the D4 dowel length for the main sail. These sails are the cheapest of the cheap! Medium weight craft paper from Hobby Lobby, cut to size and vertical lines drawn on with a mechanical pencil. The fanciest thing I did was cut in some “swoop” effect at the top between the ties on the spar. I used a tiny hand drill to drill the holes to attach the sails to the spars.

Creating these sails took about 20 minutes and cost less than $1.

For the rigging I used the elastic string that came with the kit for the shrouds and stays and ties on the spars. For the running rigging going from the mainsail spars to the stern of the ship, I used a much thinner threat and left some slack in it. I took inspiration for this sketch from Ian McLaughlin’s excellent Sloop of War book.

And she’s done!

I could have added more running lines but I felt this was a good balance of looks and funcionality.

Finished Barco Luengo

This paint job can be accomplished in about 3 hours and will get your Barco Luengo to the table looking a little scungy, but properly so!

I’m really happy with the increased size of the main sail for this little ship. It looks more balanced to me.

The Barco Luengo with Sweeps:

The Barco Luengo on a coastal patrol:

And finally here are a couple shots of the Barco Luengo side by side with some others ship.

Final Thoughts

This was a fun and very manageable hobby project. Using quick techniques, I was able to get this from box to table in just a couple sessions and I’m happy with the results!

The new Barco Luenga from Firelock Games is an exciting addition to the lineup of ships for Blood & Plunder. Check back soon for a full ship review!

Additional Recommended Reading

• Bermuda Sloop Ship Showcase
• 6th Rate Frigate Ship Showcase
• Fluyt Ship Showcase
• Sloop of War Ship Showcase
• Galleon Ship Showcase
• Heavy Bark Ship Showcase
• Light Frigate Ship Showcase
• Making Sweeps for Blood & Plunder Ships

Related Product

• Barco Luengo from Firelock Games